Archive for October 8th, 2010

I’ve been designing some miniatures I can get the Shapeways guys to print out eventually, ultimately for use in a pair of games I’m working on. One is a six player (or three or two) elemental sort of chess, so I just need models, but the other is sort of a fantasy/BattleTech mashup, a tabletop tactical miniatures game almost in the vein of WarMachine.

I’m running into a design question, though that I’d like some input on. I’m trying to find a good way to keep track of information for the combat units. For those of you with experience with or interest in mini games like this, how do you like to keep track of unit status? This might include things like hit points, status afflictions (morale, poisons, buff and debuffs, auras, that sort of thing), weapon loadout, special moves, or any of a number of other variables.

I’ve seen games like HeroClix and the World of Warcraft minis game try to encode at least some of this data on a rotating base under the figure. This has always seemed like a gimmick to me, but it does reduce the number of things you have to keep track of on paper off the combat arena. The models seem a bit flimsier for the mechanical base, though, so it’s definitely a tradeoff in terms of usability. They also seem a bit more… “gamey” than the games that just use minis on bases that might have a more simulationist feel.

Other games like WarMachine and BattleTech offload the bookkeeping to papers. This isn’t as easy to tell the status of things at a glance, but it does allow for much more detailed information and thus, potentially more game design elements and clearer design.

Warhammer does a little of both, in a way, letting unit count in a block of infantry be a visible tally of a combat group’s strength, but it also has a lot of data offloaded onto paper, especially for hero units and special gear or magical effects.

One of the strengths of the Magic: The Gathering card game is that they have tried to reduce the bookkeeping and memory issues over the years. Once upon a time you might have to keep track of multiple different upkeeps, special effects and what different counters represented (is that a +0/+2, +1/+1 or +2/+0 counter?). These days, they have tried to distill these issues and have the “board state” give as much information as possible. It’s nice to have a lot of data out there in the gamespace rather than offloaded to paper, but some things just don’t code well in a small amount of space. Reducing the number of things players have to remember also helps speed up the game and make it easier to learn, as well as easier to play.

…

My question then is about that data encoded in the figure bases, whether it’s HP, action arcs, facing, whatever. Is that method actually helpful in real gameplay? (This includes noting that it’s more of a hassle if you’re always picking up the models and twiddling with their bases, and on a non-grid gamespace, that’s kind of annoying.) Is it better to have all bookkeeping off-model?

Which do you prefer playing with and why? I have my opinions, but I also have relatively little experience with miniature tactical gaming. I’d like to get a bit more information if possible. Tangentially, how much bookkeeping is too much?

Thank you in advance!

(Perhaps this could be generously noted as a bit of game UI design. Playability is a big component of whether a game sticks or not.)